BICOM

The Syrian authorities are continuing their bloody crackdown on the uprising against the dictatorship of President Bashar Assad. Eleven civilians were killed on Sunday, according to a Syrian human rights lawyer quoted in the Sharq al-Awsat newspaper. Troops and tanks fired shells and heavy machine guns in the towns of Talbiseh and Rastan in central Syria. Talbiseh is situated north of the city of Homs, which has emerged as one of the main foci of protests. Rastan, a relatively prosperous Sunni town near Aleppo, saw one of the largest demonstrations against Assad on Friday. Unconfirmed reports suggest that residents of Talbiseh and Rastan have met incursions by the military with armed resistance. The official Syrian news agency SANA said that four members of the security forces were killed.

In total, over 1000 people are thought to have died in the uprising against Assad, and more than 10,000 have been detained.